As party conference pledges go, it must rank as one of the oddest: the
delegations arriving in Beijing for the defining parliamentary meeting of
the decade have promised to eat up all the food on their plates.

As the country enters a new era under the presidency of Xi Jinping, the
earnest pledges of “empty plate action” had last night been made by
delegations from Henan, Inner Mongolia and Shandong provinces, with others
expected to go public in the next 24 hours. The idea is to appear as closely
attuned as possible to the recent comments and public persona of